When I was a kid my parents had some friends over and were playing a parlor game, they let me join in. Essentially the game was to take a dictionary word no one knew the definition of and each player fabricates as plausible a definition as they can. The real and fabricated definitions are then read aloud and you get a point for every person you fooled with yours.
Anyway... the point is as a kid trying to come up with a believable definition for an unknown word my definition started out... "A top secret..." and immediately people were chuckling. As a kid I didn't make the connection. Not saying this is exactly what's happening in these alien proof things, but I always think back to that time and chuckle to myself. Of course I should have done what these UFO guys do... "A now declassified top secret" or "A once available, but now top secret..."
The interesting thing about the secret memo's, is that they are proof, not evidence, but proof that gov. agencies have taken a very serious stance on the subject, even if never publically admitting it.
Even now, with the documents released, they will not make public statements on the subject, unless statements to simply downplay their involvements or on the rare occasion, make a point that they hold no interest in the subject. Blatent denial in face of the obvious facts contradicting such statements.
UFO's, I would guess, would definitely be considered a matter of national security for any nation... because they're unidentified objects that are flying in their air space.
The jump from "these unidentified objects are of great interest to the government" (well I certainly hope so) to "it's therefore aliens from outer space" is absurd.
Not absurd at all.. it's logical. How can any nation have the technology to escape the airforce in 1952 say, when several UFO's cascaded over the White House? The USA was basically the superpower back then, no one had the technology then to do what was claimed in the Washington sighting.
Far from absurd. As my favorite fictional character goes, Sherlock Holmes once said
''if you eliminate the impossible, no matter how improbable, whatever remains must be the truth.''
I heard a noise in my kitchen so I get up to investigate. When I get there there's nothing there. Conclusion: the alien in my kitchen telaported away... how else can you explain someone getting into my house and leaving so quickly without a trace?
Woah, slow down. All I said was a heard a noise. First eliminate the other reasonable explanations then we can talk about aliens.
Actually, mass hysteria is a very real thing. Probably most famously the Salem witch trials, less so the 1518 Dancing Plague:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dancing_Plague_of_1518
Yes, but spontaenous mass local sightings that are not preceded by a period of mass rhetorical conditioning are a completely different situation. It really isn't relevant data to bring to bear to support your idea that the masses can be deluded or collect around a popular contemporary fiction.